Van Abel's of Hollandtown — Restaurant in Town of Holland

We went as a family of 3 and we were seated after ordering drinks from the bar. There was a meat raffle going on & we got there before the rush for dinner.

We ordered the family meal of chicken and fish. Wow toooooo much food for 3 people. And then when we barely made a dent in it and were ready for the check we asked about a box and were told we weren't supposed to take the leftovers. Probably should have a disclaimer that small party's ordering family style meal is a TON of food. Especially since we're not supposed to have any leftovers to take home. 🤦🏻‍♀️

WHAT?! WHAT KIND OF ABSURDITY IS THIS?! You provide way too much food-literally every inch of the table had a dish on it of food and our plates. And we're paying a pretty penny for the family meal and we can't take what we have on the table? We didn't order 2nds of anything. The food will get dumped, it cannot be given to other customers, workers can't eat it, so why can't we take it?!!

None of that was said to the waitress of course. Our conversation when we left. The waitress was kind and said I'm sorry, not supposed to let you but here's a box to take some home. Thankful for her kindness.

Which there were only 2 of waitresses-with 5 bussers who don't/can't do anything else? Maybe you should train them & let them take plates away and provide drinks when there's not enough wait staff? We waited forever for refills and the food wasn't all going to be consumed by us so we were not priority I guess. She did her best for being 1 of 2. Still ridiculous.

If we return we know never to order the family style meal ever again not unless we have a large party. The food was good. But definitely need to rethink the no leftovers for family meals and letting bussers gain more skills by helping when...

It was an absolute chaotic mess for Mother's Day today. We had reservations for 12:30; they had us down for 12:00. So they said 10 min. After 15 we went back up to check in station and they said 10 more minutes. After 10 more minutes we went back and they had given our table to another family with same last name. After another wait, they finally seated all 15 of us at an empty table in dining area...no water, no silverware, no set up whatsoever. We sat there for another 15 minutes with nothing and no acknowledgment and all the other empty tables around us being prepped and people seated after us, so we went up to the woman expediting the service people to see why we were being completely ignored. Then came out savior, Kaleb! Nice young man who worked his hindend off to finally get us fed and taken care of. Kaleb deserves a promotion or a big raise. Our party tipped him very well at the end of our meal, and we constantly complimented him every time he came out with more for our table. Kaleb ROCKS! Needless to say, they were not fully prepared to reopen for a busy holiday. We LOVE the food, but pre-service, before Kaleb, was nul/terrible, so we won't be back again. Very...

11/29/24. Absolutely terrible service. If you bring up any concerns, you just get gas lighted. I had to wander around the restaurant on two different occasions looking for a server to help us or even bring us coffee. When I found someone and asked for service, they got all irritated and sarcastic. Really? This is a restaurant, right? No tip, and if I had a choice, I wouldn't have paid anything. It wasn't worth 20 dollars. Not if you have to get up and wander around the building looking for some coffee.

If you can not serve, do not want to serve, or lose interest in serving people, then maybe close the place or find management who actually cares about the people paying money to eat at your establishment.

It's not good and definitely not acceptable. I will not be bringing my family to Van Ables ever again.

12/21/24. Update: I am still waiting for the promised gift card to "reset" my experience, lol. So not only was the service terrible, the manager, Clay, lied to me about sending a gift card as a way to apologize and "reset," as he said.

This apparently is Van Able's standard. Bad service and management that lies to its customers. It's not a good long-term...